Unverified claims of suicide by two students spark protests at Patiala private university

Students of a private university near Rajpura in Patiala held a protest and also allegedly damaged a police vehicle over unverified claims about two female students' suicides on the campus, with police saying they are conducting an inquiry into the matter.The administration of Chitkara University, located near Rajpura in Patiala, has, however, denied any suicide incident and asked the students not to pay heed to rumours.It also said the local administration and police authorities are working closely to address the unsubstantiated claims of some students.Students of Chitkara University held a massive protest on the campus on Friday night (September 25, 2026), with some of them allegedly damaging a Punjab Police patrol vehicle.Videos purportedly showing the damage to the police vehicle surfaced on social media.Police received a complaint from students amid their protest over the allegations concerning the two female students, a police officer said.Students have also raised questions about reports of screams allegedly heard from a girls' hostel and sought to know whether the university authorities had information about what happened.Chitkara University registrar Col Rakesh Sharma (Retd.) interacted with the protesting students.Col. Sharma, however, categorically denied that any such incident took place at the university."No such incident has taken place at the university. These are all rumours," he said.Banur DSP Sukhdev Singh, Rajpura SHO Gursewak Singh and Rajpura Sadar SHO Kirpal Mohi reached the university and took stock of the situation.The DSP said that students were claiming that two female students were missing."We have met students here and received their complaints. But nobody knows who is missing. They do not even know the name of any of the girls who is missing. But there is a rumour that two girls are missing."Considering the seriousness of the matter, we have received a complaint from students. We will investigate it. We will do verification of each student. If anybody is found missing, necessary action will be taken," the DSP said.The Chitkara University administration, in a post on social media, requested students not to pay heed to unverified stories and rumours circulating in some groups.The local administration and police authorities are working closely with our campus team to address the unsubstantiated claims of some students, it said."We are committed to providing a safe experience to our student community at all times. All academic and placement initiatives will continue as per the announced schedule for Saturday (September 26, 2026)" it read.Students are advised to rely only on official University communication and report any genuine concerns directly to University authorities, it added. Published - September 26, 2026 12:40 pm IST